| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
12 (of the 24) seats in the Senate of the Philippines 13 seats needed for a majority | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Philippines portal |
The 2007 election of members to the Senate of the Philippines was the 29th election to the Senate of the Philippines. It was held on Monday, May 14, 2007, to elect 12 of the 24 seats in the Senate. The winners in this election joined the winners of the 2004 election to form the 14th Congress of the Philippines. The senators elected in 2004 will serve until June 30, 2010, while the senators elected in this election will serve up to June 30, 2013. The elections to the House of Representatives as well as local elections occurred on the same date. The Philippines uses plurality-at-large voting for seats in the Senate.
In the election, the opposition-backed alliance called the Genuine Opposition (GO) defeated the administration-led alliance TEAM Unity by winning seven of the twelve seats in the Senate. For the first time in Philippine history, Antonio Trillanes was elected as a senator while currently detained for mutiny and rebellion charges. Almost the incumbents running for reelection won except for Ralph Recto who was at fourteenth place.
An electoral protest of GO's Koko Pimentel, the 13th placed candidate, against TEAM Unity's Migz Zubiri, the 12th place candidate, resulted in Zubiri's resignation in the Senate, and the Senate Electoral Tribunal's decision to replace Pimentel with Zubiri. This led to GO winning 8 seats, the biggest win by the opposition in the Senate election history since 1951, notwithstanding 2 other opposition candidates won, and only 2 administration candidates won.